10/27/2026
HE BROKE HIS NECK AT 57. AND HE STILL WASN’T FINISHED WITH RODEO.
Some cowboys never figure out when to quit.
Benny Reynolds might have been the best example of all.
Back in 1961, Reynolds did something mighty impressive. He beat some of the toughest cowboys in America, including Harry Tompkins, to become the World Champion All-Around Cowboy.
And Benny didn’t do it by specializing in one event.
He rode ba****ck horses. He rode bulls. He wrestled steers. He rode saddle broncs.
If you beat Benny in one event, you still had to worry about him beating you in another.
He’d been getting bucked off horses since he was a youngster in Montana. In fact, when he recalled his early rodeo days, he admitted:
“I got thrown off everything I got on.”
Apparently, he learned a few things along the way.
By 1958, he was Rookie of the Year. Three years later, he was the best all-around cowboy in the world.
But here’s where the story gets interesting.
Most cowboys from his generation had retired from competition long before the 1990s.
Not Benny.
In 1993, at 57 years old, Reynolds was still climbing aboard bucking horses.
Then came a riding accident that broke his neck.
That finally ended his roughstock riding career.
But did Benny quit rodeo?
Not hardly.
He continued steer wrestling for another few years. He kept team roping and competing in old-timers’ rodeos until he was 71.
Seventy-one years old.
The same cowboy who had battled the likes of Harry Tompkins in the early 1960s was still competing more than four decades later.
Benny Reynolds passed away in 2014, but he left behind something greater than a collection of championship buckles.
He represented a generation of cowboys who didn’t consider rodeo something they did for a living.
It was simply who they were.
Here’s a question for the old rodeo hands: Was Benny Reynolds one of the greatest all-around cowboys who ever lived? And did any of you ever get to watch him compete?
I’d especially love to hear from anyone who remembers him in the 1950s, ‘60s, or during his old-timers’ years.
